The U.S. health care system is a “sitting duck” in the face of a coming cluster of winter epidemics, one expert told Fortune.

COVID will likely reach levels in December not yet seen this year, combining with surges of flu, RSV, and other pathogens for a winter not so different from last year’s “tripledemic,” experts say.

Raj Rajnarayanan, assistant dean of research and associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Ark., told Fortune that the U.S. is a “sitting duck” in the face of a “syndemic” winter.

It’s a term he prefers to “tripledemic,” as it acknowledges the impact of more than three pathogens on the healthcare system, and the need for policies to address the phenomenon, in addition to medical interventions.

“Strained hospital capacities, workforce exhaustion, burnout, a lack of effective therapeutic tools, poor communication, a lack of compliance [with COVID precautions], a lack of continuity planning, and the pervasive influence of social determinants of health” only make the nation’s delicate health infrastructure more fragile, he said.

  • flicker@kbin.social
    42·
    1 year ago

    I’ve been on Lemmy talking about this for ages. Listen. I’m in healthcare. I work under the Deparment of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities in a 501c3 doing residential care.

    The health care system in America is absolutely fucked from top down.

    I’m working constantly. We do not have enough people. In my particular field, we are vastly underpaid for the work we do, so no one wants to do it. The jobs are there, the labor isn’t. And listen, no one in this job can blame them!

    We’re so burned out that every time yet another person quits we all nod and say, “Good for them” and soldier on, because if we stop showing up, these people will die.

    That’s just residential care. People living communally with disabilities wind up in every facet of health care (urgent care, hospitals, physicians) at an insane rate, so I see different facilities almost every day, and everywhere I go the story is the same!

    Something has to give. You can’t order us to work and eventually the rising cost of living will force people like me to give up on these marginalized populations. Every LPN and CNA I know has quit healthcare altogether because it’s not worth it. The only one I know who still works is a PRN contractor who charges over $30/hour to work in nursing homes. We have to do something or there won’t be anyone left to treat anyone!